I have recently acquired a vintage horsebox which I hope to give a new life as a mobile art installation at events in East Anglia.

Art in a box will initially feature the Museum of Beyond, a roaming gallery of plastic marine debris, imagining a future beyond oil.... I'm just making some final touches then we will be off on our first outings! Here's details of where we will be going:

After an incredibly successful 6 months at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska in 2014 (nearly 50000 visitors!) and a visit toThe David J. Spencer CDC Museum in Atlanta, Georgia from January 27, 2015 – June 21, 2015 (images of the exhibition below) and the USC Fisher Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California, from September 2, 2015 – November 21, 2015, , GYRE is moving to its final venue! It will be exhibited at the San Jose State University Thompson Gallery from February 2, 2016 until March 26, 2016.

If you can't make it to the exhibition, GYRE curator, Julie Decker, has created a wonderful book to accompany the exhibition: Gyre: The Plastic Ocean, which explores the relationship between humans and the ocean in a contemporary culture of consumption, offering an international perspective on a pressing environmental problem, the plastic, flotsam and jetsam in our oceans.

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PIECES OF SEA AND SKY
Exhibition with Liza Adamczewski at Sizewell, Suffolk - 31st July until 16th August 2015

I'm very excited about my next exhibition, Pieces of Sea and Sky, a collaboration with Liza Adamczewski at her home on the beach at Sizewell. Liza paints amazing seascapes and creates mini installations inspired by the sea. My Museum of Beyond will be on display (if you have any plastic beach finds you would like to contribute to the Museum, please do bring them along) and I will also be exhibiting an update of my project, Fresh Air - more relevant now than ever…

If you’re in the Sizewell area, do come and join us for opening drinks and nibbles in Liza’s garden by the sea on Friday 31st July - or come for tea on Weds 5th or Tues 11th August. The exhibition will be open every weekend and also on other days by arrangement. Just email me for more details - we would love to see you there!

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MUSEUM OF BEYOND

The new website is up and running - watch out for a special seasonal 'object of the month' in the Museum.

The Museum of Beyond is currently collaborating with Unconfimed Makeshift Museum (UMM) in Irvine, California. For UMM's inaugural exhibition (which opened on 6th December, 2014), the Museum of Beyond and UMM invite the neighbourhood to collect colourful plastic pieces of marine debris from local beaches in Southern California in order to create A present from the Pacific in the Powder Room Gallery and to add to the Museum of Beyond's collection. Read more here.

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MUSEUM OF BEYOND

The new website is launched! And to mark its launch, the Museum exhibited its collection for one week at the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout in July with exciting collaborations with composer Nathan Williamson and poet Leanne Moden.

With Marina DeBris' amazing help, a range of my artworks are included in 'American Trash' in Santa Monica. Thanks, Marina!

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GYRE: THE PLASTIC OCEAN

I am thrilled to have been invited to take part in “Gyre: The Plastic Ocean”, which opens at the Anchorage Museum, Alaska, this week. My work is made, has been shipped and is being installed as I write...

“Gyre: The Plastic Ocean" is an ambitious new exhibition that tells a global marine debris story through the work of 26 artists hailing from Australia to Finland. Artists such Mark Dion, Chris Jordan, Andy Hughes - and myself - tell a remarkable visual narrative and take a provocative look at the impact we each have on our world.

This 7,500-square-foot exhibition includes more than 80 site-specific installations, photographs, films, sculptures, paintings and drawings. About half were created specifically for “Gyre.” The exhibition also features a new National Geographic film, scientific panels, documentary photography, and hands-on activities for families.

“Gyre: The Plastic Ocean” lives at the junction where art and science converge. This generation of environmental art is not passive or detached. It suggests activism, not observation; science, not romanticism; and new knowledge, not conventional wisdom.

Overall, “Gyre: The Plastic Ocean” takes a proactive approach designed not to chastise, but to inspire. “Humankind has certainly imposed its footprint on this landscape, but we have not ruined it,” said Julie Decker, Anchorage Museum director and exhibition curator. “Plastic is a modern material, so this is a modern and recent problem. That means there are things we can do, individually and collectively, to reverse the impacts.”

“Gyre: The Plastic Ocean” is on view until Sept. 6 at the Anchorage Museum, the largest museum in Alaska. Learn more at anchoragemuseum.org/gyre.

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ALDEBURGH POETRY FESTIVAL: PILOTAGE

This summer I have been really pleased to be collaborating with poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan for a commission for the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. The work is nearly complete and we are delighted to invite you to enjoy the results of our collaboration, Pilotage, at not just one, but two exhibitions during the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival weekend from 8th to 10th November. If you are in the area, do come along to the Dovecote Studio at Snape Maltings and the South Lookout on Aldeburgh Beach to take a look. Opening times are given below.

We’ve also produced a small book, Pilotage: collected works, which will be offered at a special festival price of £5 throughout the festival weekend.

You can see a selection of my marine litter installations and book at the Create Centre in Bristol until 28th June, 2013, as part of the Making Waves exhibition there. Other artists exhibiting include photographer Andy Hughes and the Poietic Studio. For more information take a look at the Raw Foundation website or visit www.createbristol.org and follow the link to exhibitions and events.

My friends in Skeleton Sea have invited me to join them in another exhibition - this time at the amazing Oceanario in Lisbon from now until 26th November, 2012. Thanks to the excellent translating skills of Ana, my wildlife traps and presents from the sea are now available in Portuguese!
See more on the Skeleton Sea website. If you go to Lisbon, don't miss it!!

Thanks to artist collective, Skeleton Sea, a range of my work can now be seen in Spain at Torre Madariaga, the Basque Country Biodiversity Centre - a historical tower on a green hill overlooking the stunning north coast at Mundaka, a stone's throw from Bilbao. As well as Skeleton Sea's amazing sculptures, the exhibition includes Wildlife Traps, Presents from the Sea, Wild Bird Food and Seafood Soup in Spanish and Basque. The exhibition runs until April 2012.

I've created an exciting site specific installation of plastic marine litter in the iconic Dovecote Studio at Snape Maltings, Suffolk - it's a really interesting building and with its exceptional height (over 6 meters to the apex) offers a challenging and wonderful space to work in...

Lines of Exchange can be seen throughout August during the Snape Proms, every day 2pm until the evening concert (approx 7/7.30pm). It will also be open for the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival (this year's theme is the sea) 23rd - 25th September .

An artist I have met locally has just started a really inspiring project - to individually draw 60000 (yes, 60000!!!) pieces of rubbish, which was the amount collected in 2009 by Suffolk's Beachwatch and Adopt-a-Beach projects. And I thought I was mad just collecting 46000 pieces of rubbish!!!!

Found on a recent walk at Sizewell... a pre-decimal pack of Quavers (so over 40 years old!!!), freshly washed up on the tide...
[I found the Mary & Peter crisp packet a few meters later on the same walk.]

A few years ago, fearing that
that air might be privatised, I developed an AIR RAID KIT providing everything
we need to know in order to collect and safeguard the necessary
quantity of air we would breathe in our remaining lifetime. At
the time my ideas were considered a little far-fetched - 'what, privatise air ...
next you'll be saying they're going to privatise the earth that we walk
on?! ' ... Except that most of the land we walk on has been privatised
and now the Con-Dems have even sought to privatise our forests!

SWIFT END TO BALLOON RELEASE
I have known for a long time that balloons can cause major harm to sea
creatures but was shocked the other day to see a swift plummet to the
ground in my own garden! The swift had flown into a balloon
which had burst, ensnaring its neck and wings and causing it to drop
like stone. Fortunately my friend Lesley and i are were on hand and
able to cut it free - miraculously it had landed on long grass only
inches away from fencing posts and flew away unharmed by its trauma.
Swifts are beautiful creatures and can fly up to 2.8million miles in
their lifetime at heights of up to 10000 feet, even 'roosting' whilst
on the wing!

This balloon was part of a charity balloon release in
Essex. the charity concerned has pledged never to take part in future
balloon releases - but what about the local estate agents and other bisnesses
who provide the balloons free of charge to promote their businesses??
Due to prevailing southwesterlies most of the balloons released in eastern
England are likely to end up in the sea. I do hope that the publicity
given to this shocking incident will make everyone think again
about balloon releases - let's not put wildlife at risk no matter how
good the cause is...